The debt level as a percent of GDP was much higher at the end of World War II. The present debt level does not imply that there will be serious consequences. It might happen that there are serious consequences but there don't necessarily have to be serious consequences.

The consequences of our present spending will be determined by the quality of future policy decisions.

Computers work with computable systems of axioms. The Peano axioms of arithmetic, that is the complete set of them, are not a computable system. A computer would not be able to deduce the results from the strong system of Peano axioms that are not computable. Well, so I believe.

Flip a coin 100,000 times and after each flip record whether you got a heads or a tails. After you are done you have a 100,000 long chain of heads and tails written. Now ask a mathematician what the probability that this chain of heads and tails will ever be flipped and he/she will say that it is 1/2^(100,000). But you just flipped this exact same sequence! Amazing.

It would be foolish to argue that God had to be involved because an event of extremely low probability occurred. Likewise, it is foolish to argue that since humans evolving randomly is an extremely low probability event then God must have had a hand it it.

I voted you up because what you write is certainly true. I think he just might be the worst President in history. Andrew Jackson comes to mind because of his genocide of the Native peoples of the United States. What's happened in Iraq is a great human tragedy and I am not prepared to argue with any degree of accuracy that the genocide of the Native peoples outweighs the human tragedy in Iraq. But it is something to consider.

"If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?"

Christians that have an America first attitude are disobeying Christ because they are not doing more than what pagans do. The charge of Christ is one of love and self sacrifice and not just for your neighbor but also for those who hate us and are our enemies. Christians everywhere ought to advocate for policies that are in the interest of justice for all humanity and not to advocate for policies that maintain American power or what is in America's self interest.

George Bush's presidency has been a disaster. Our ruinous war in Iraq has cost the United States $3 trillion. The United States has had a negative savings rate for some time now and deficit spending is out of control. John McCain has promised more wars and to try to maintain the American imperial system.

Another 4 - 8 years of this and the imperial system has a good chance of collapse. This means a decrease in American power and the ability for the United States to act unilaterally and invade other countries at will will similarly be diminished. This is a good thing. This is a good thing for the world and humanity. John McCain represents the best hope for ensuring the demise of the America's empire.

In the U.S., at least, we suffer from having too many laws. As it stands now, we have the highest rate of incarceration after North Korea.

The larger context of the question is whether or not it should be socially acceptable for obese people to eat at fast food restaurants. Obesity rates are highest amongst the poor and the allure of fast food is almost too hard to pass up for poor people. Fast food provides massive amounts of calories per dollar. A poor person does not have the luxury of buying fruits and vegetables and other healthy foods in the same quantities that the middle class and wealthy can. Poor people aren't rich enough to eat healthy.

It is obvious that fast food companies spend millions of dollars researching their concoctions. Almost all of their food is artificial and are primarily sugary concoctions. The food is designed to affect the brain in ways similar to how drugs work. Should fast food restaurants be allowed to serve this filth to anyone? I don't know but let's not fixate on the obese and shift responsibility from the restaurants and a government with unsound social policies.

I just saw your response. There is room for leeway. I was just pointing out that the act of 'believing in Jesus Christ' is not sufficient to be considered a Christian. I used Muslims as an example of people who believe in Jesus Christ but are not considered Christians. Muslims say of Jesus Christ that he was perfect (sin free) but not divine. I wasn't implying that Mormons are not Christians but rather that the argument presented was flawed.